2003 Contest Winners

The National Guild of Professional Paperhangers is proud and honored to work alongside The Zinsser Company who has sponsored the prestigious Winning Walls With Wallcovering Contest for the past three years. This contest is open to any Guild member who feels he/she has done a project worthy of someone taking notice. Some projects are large, some small… the size is not significant.

A panel of four American Society of Interior Designers members and selected Paint & Decorating Retailer’s Association magazine staff judged more than 40 entries. The first and second place winners received cash prizes, along with engraved display awards. The honorable mention winners received engraved walnut plaques. There are three categories: residential, commercial, and specialty. Besides the personal satisfaction comes national recognition and Guild pride. This contest epitomizes the uniqueness of the wallcovering industry.

First place in the residential category went to Tod Carey of The Great Wall, Laguna Beach, California. Carey impressed the judges with his artistic talent as well as attitude. Instead of using a very expensive hand painted silk, Carey used a liner paper and antiqued and sealed the paper, then hand-painted the ground, grass, trees and flowers, birds and butterflies using water colors. Each scene is unique and customized to fit the doors, walls and windows. The client got a hand-painted wallcovering at half the price.

Second Place in the residential category went to Jim Yates of Historical Wallpapering Specialties, Johnson City, Tennessee. Yates used an eclectic approach of wallcoverings by J.R. Burrows, Waterhouse, Clarence House, Scalamandre, Stroheim & Roman as well as Bradbury & Bradbury to do a 15-room mansion, known as The Harper House in North Carolina. As with most older homes, there were the challenges of settling, slanted ceilings and plaster cracks, but thanks to lasers and modern wallcovering products, such as lining paper and primers, the job turned out beautifully. After 900 man hours, 978 yards of border, 315 rolls of liner and 348 rolls of wallpaper, The Harper House became a replica of "the gilded age."

Honorable Mention in the Residential category went to Tod Carey of The Great Wall, Laguna Beach, California, for his treatment of a dome, forty feet off the marble floor at it’s apex, measuring 15 feet across and 9 feet high from its equator. The judges were impressed by the challenge of height, the hand painted detail to seams, and the engineering knowledge that made this project a reality.

First place in the commercial category went to John Damme, C.P. of Exquisite Interiors, Hickory Hills, Illinois. Damme transformed a stairway in the Alsip Building into a work of art and beauty. An artist was commissioned to do the design of six 7 x 17 foot pieces, with five smaller pieces in varying sizes of hand painted murals. These murals were positioned by the installer in a space measuring about ten feet wide by twenty feet long by thirty feet high, comprising a turning staircase and four landings.

Second place in the commercial category went to Michael Baughman of Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California won the second place commercial award. The judges thought Baughman overcame physical challenges with unusual skill and talent. There were over 3,894 square feet of murals on muslin canvas. All murals were untrimmed. The murals were installed at various heights above floor level, which meant that all work had to be done using a scissors lift which had a 32-inch reach to the wall from the scissors lift platform- an exercise which usually is only twelve inches from the wall. Murals had to be engineered for placement on the walls taking into account previously installed exit signs, alarms, sirens, electrical conduits, door openings and the angles of structures and water painted in the murals. This was in addition to a second phase of the project, which was mosaic mural panels, which had to be carefully adjusted to keep the images aligned while completely covering the wall surface.

Honorable Mention in the commercial category went to Michael Keith and Donald Foreman in San Jose, California whose project the judges felt presented one challenge after another- from height, to the printed product, difficult to see up close, applied to a coffered barrel ceiling. The images were printed on an ink jet printer and flaked at the slightest touch, so handling was with extreme caution. With 52-man hours, Optical Illusions, a shop in The Santana Row complex, became a museum showplace.

First Place in the specialty category went to Joe Gonzalez of JAG Painting & Decorating, San Antonio, Texas. Sixty Six hides of Cortina full grain leather were installed in an NBA arena. Height and other factors presented a number of challenges. The installation of each panel required 2 ½ hours and the patience of a professional wallcovering installer. The project, thought to be unlike anything ever done before, took 25 days and 200 man-hours. Gonzalez quoted some words of wisdom and inspiration from his first NGPP convention in Pasadena in 2000, "We should never be afraid to tackle any wallcovering installation. If not us, then whom? "

Second Place in the specialty category went to Michael Baughman of Baughman Wallcovering, Oceanside, California. This project involved ten hand-painted canvas murals with 1,344 total square feet. The logistics proved a challenge as all seven areas that should have been accessible with a scissors lift were not accessible because of previously installed counter tops and buffet areas. The wall spaces were concave and convex in shape. Baughman had to create his own accessibility. The judges said "The installation was tedious and creative. The end result was perfect."

Honorable Mention in the specialty category went to John Damme, C.P. of Exquisite Interiors, Hickory Hills, Illinois. The judges were impressed with Damme's knowledge of the material. 
"He knew it would shrink and kept a record of the shrinkage." There was a tremendous attention to detail dealing with original artwork with no margin for error. This was an installation of a masterpiece, two pieces five-foot by fifteen-foot pre-trimmed linen artists' canvas. The job took 44 hours on a domed ceiling.

Each entry in this contest has a story. In many cases, pictures do not do justice to the entry as the story gives the details and challenges involved with each project. The Guild is proud of its members and their accomplishments and thanks The Zinsser Company for allowing our members to highlight their talents through this contest.

Click below for a view of the winning installations:

Residential

First Place, Tod Carey Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Second Place, Jim Yates Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Honorable Mention, Tod Carey Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Commercial

First Place, John Damme, C.P. Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Second Place, Michael Baughman Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Honorable Mention, Michael Keith and Donald Foreman Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Specialty

First Place, Joe Gonzalez Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Second Place, Michael Baughman Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6

Honorable Mention, John Damme, C.P. Pic2 Pic3 Pic4 Pic5 Pic6